My dislike for Mark Millar really begins with Marvel's Civil War (don't even get me started), and only became more intense due to the Ultimates (and the way in which he is misogynist, racist, and thinks domestic abuse is funny), but it really and truly coalesced for me while reading his first issue of The Authority.

I am not at all amused by the fact that in this issue, he mocks comic book fans and denigrates creators and writers in the industry. It takes someone with a certain level of both ego and idiocy to make fun of the people that make up your fanbase, not to mention the people that pioneered the industry that allowed you to have your job. But I suppose one could write this off as particularly mean-spirited lampshade hanging, and this is not why I loathe Mark Millar (though it does get tallied into the column of why I do not respect Millar).

No, the reason I despise Mark Millar can be condensed down to a single moment in this issue of The Authority. The Doctor and the Engineer are breaking into a secret desert base when challenged by a number of soldier-types. When the Doctor is told to cease and desist, and that the soldiers are serious, he responds with the following:

"Man, if you were serious, you wouldn't be pointing those things at someone with the power to give you Double-D sized breasts just by clicking his nicotine-stained fingers."

The Doctor has immense powers- as taken from the Wikipedia entry, "The Doctor's abilities work by drawing a detailed mental picture and letting reality build it for them, therefore enabling each Doctor to do anything that they can imagine."

So The Doctor can do anything he can imagine... and with all that power and all that possibility, the worst threat he can offer is to turn the soldiers into women. (Well-endowed women, at that, because of course, big breasts are great until you put them on a man.) With one line, Mark Millar shows that he hates femininity so much that a man being turned into a woman is made a serious threat in the arsenal of a character of immense power.

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Yeah, I had no idea that volume 2 was half written by him. I was expecting it to be all Ellis, and it was not a pleasant surprise. I think I will do as you advise, and skip ahead. Or just give up. Millar is a bastard.

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I haven't read The Authority, but having read Civil War and Ultimates, I share your feelings about Mark Millar. Not surprised that he writes gross things The Authority, too. I'm always weirded out how he manages to throw rape, incest, and cannibalism into so much of his work--no one needs to see an id like that.